"I'll Wash, You Dry."

     Muppet Family Christmas is one of my absolute favorite Christmas specials. Here's my little take on Jim Henson's cameo in the special.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

To the FOUNDER OF THE FEAST!

Welcome to Muppetville

Okay, so here's my pitch:

     Fashion diva and super mogul Miss Piggy's entire empire has come crashing down. Left without a cent to her name, she has no choice but to move back to her small podunk hometown of Muppetville. There she struggles to find her place among the town's zany residents, as well as make amends with her ex-boyfriend Kermit the Frog after he graciously hires her as a waitress at the town diner. It's a show about big dreams, second chances, new starts, and on occasion... a crazy who carries a TNT plunger.

...Millions of People Happy

We're overdue for another animated Muppet series.

I have some ideas.

Did You Say 'Cheap 3D Tricks'?!

     And now a brief Park Pals tribute to the IP that I don't think gets enough love in the Disney parks... or from Disney IN GENERAL, for that matter! The Muppets!

     I’ve always kind of felt like Disney sees the Muppets as this hand-me-down toy that no one really wants to play with and will drop for the first Star War or Descendant that happens to come out the chute. Because of this mindset, (that I can’t even really explain) I used to get mild anxiety that my favorite Disney attraction, Muppet*Vision 3D, could get the axe at any moment and wouldn’t be there the next time I visited the park. When I DID visit the park, I couldn’t even really enjoy it for thinking that this could be the last time I saw it! It’s ridiculous, but it’s how I felt. 

     Then I thought of something even more ridiculous, and that’s pinning so much of my happiness on something that is 100% out of my control. My mindset turned around when I decided that I can CHOOSE to enjoy this thing while it’s here, as well as choose to be hopeful that whatever Disney eventually replaces it with is good. Maybe even better! I dunno. Change is hard, but it can be good. Don’t ruin the good times for worrying about the good times coming to an end. 

This was a lot for a post of a monster with a paddle ball.

Three Monsters and a Frog

 

     Here I am, your roving blogger back with another Sesame Street blog post. Kermit the Frog is usually seen as an entertainer and the ultimate master of ceremonies, but I've always seen him as a newsman at heart.

Muppet Babies (1984 - 1991)

It’s time once again for me to talk about the Saturday morning cartoons of my youth. 

Ahh… youth. 

Let’s Kablama Slam! 

 

The Premise: It’s right there in the title. The MUPPETS are BABIES. Kermit the Frog and friends hang out in a nursery under the care of their nanny,…Nanny. They play, sing songs and solve problems using the incredible power of their combined imagination. 

 

     There have been countless spinoffs, over the years, where characters from a franchise are reimagined as younger versions: The Flintstone Kids, Yo Yogi!, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Baby Looney Tunes, Disney Babies, Baby Yoda… okay that last one’s a little on the fence, but still! The idea’s been done! Muppet Babies, however, did it first! 

     The whole concept spawned from a random scene in the 1984 film, The Muppets Take Manhattan, or rather that random scene spawned from the concept. The actual plot of the film involves the Muppets trying to make it on Broadway, but then there’s this moment where Miss Piggy inexplicably daydreams about the gang knowing one another since birth! It’s jarring and completely out of character, almost as if its only purpose was to plug a cartoon series that would air two months later. I may sound as if I’m saying all of this with a tone of cynicism, but whatever! It worked! The moment is BY FAR my favorite of the film and, what’s more… I loved this show! 

     Where other preschool cartoons focus on more basic things like shapes and numbers, Muppet Babies was all about using your imagination. One minute the gang are in their nursery, and the next they’re serving cheeseburgers in Jabba the Hutt’s palace! While the situation would constantly bounce back and forth from the babies’ reality to their stock-footage filled daydreams, at no point do any of the characters question what the others are doing. They take the ball and run with it like a preschool improv group made up of bears, pigs, and whatevers. It’s hard to think of another show that more accurately visualizes “playing pretend,” as well as promoting creativity to the level that Muppet Babies does. When you consider that the show is the product of one of the most creative people who’ve ever walked the planet, however, well… there’s no other way the show could have gone!

Kablama Slam! Fun Fact: Most of the main cast appear in puppet form in The Muppets Take Manhattan with the exception of Animal and Skeeter. The puppet version of Baby Animal later appeared during a scene in A Muppet Family Christmas, while Skeeter, in one of the largest failures of the human race, has yet to appear in puppet form ever!

Happy Birthday, Jim Henson!

     Today is Jim Henson's birthday! I was going to commemorate the occasion by honoring the man with some standard Kermit fan art. You know? Run of the mill stuff. However, I instead chose to go against the grain a little by drawing some more Sesame Street...

....aaaaand without any characters that Jim Henson ever performed.

...

Yeah I really didn't think this through.

C is for Cookie

     I don't know if anyone out there is getting a kick out of these Sesame Street characters of mine, but I'm certainly getting a kick out of drawing them. Here's the third installment featuring MY personal favorite: Cookie Monster!

     Some of these guys, like Cookie for example, are so simple in their design and yet still so difficult for me to convey the personality that I'm wanting to convey. After a couple of takes, though, I came up with something I'm happy with. Cool story, huh?

Two! Two Sesame Street Blog Posts!

     Here's the next installment of me satisfying my nostalgic urge to draw some classic Sesame Street. Years ago, Palisades Toys announced a line of Sesame Street action figures in the same vein as their beloved Muppet Show figures. Sadly, the company went bankrupt before the toys were ever produced. While this was good news for my bank account, it left a small void in that little muppety piece of my soul. I've attempted to fill this void by drawing these characters in the same waves as the action figures were released. It has absolutely zero collector's value, but it is much easier on said bank account.

Taking It To The Street

    I'm not saying anything unique when I say that Sesame Street was a very influential part of my childhood. It taught me about numbers and letters, of course, but much more! It taught me about birth and death. It taught me about marriage and divorce. It taught me about nutrition, nature, lady bug picnics, Spanish, Mandarin, pinball machines, race relations, subway stations, rhyming, service animals, toaster maintenance, super hero parodies, Broadway parodies, game show parodies... soooo many parodies!

But above all, it taught me this: 

Puppets. 

Are. 

Awesome.

     And because of such, here now is the first of what I hope to be many posts devoted to all the whatnots, monsters, and twiddlebugs who reside in that beloved suburb where the air is oh-so-sweet!

Penguin Suits - Fozzie Bear

Have Yourself a Random Little Christmas

     I thought it'd be fun to celebrate the season with some random characters from various Christmas specials.

Feliz Navidad, everyone!

Grandma from A Garfield Christmas

The Great Ak from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

Wendell Porcupine from Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

Miss Jessica from Santa Claus is Comin' To Town

Lucy from A Charlie Brown Christmas

You're So Randomz

     Once again, I've come up with a hodgepodge of different characters that I just felt like drawing and slapped them all together in an attempt to bring a little happiness into the world.

Mission: Accomplished?

Judy Jetson from The Jetsons

Alvin, Simon, and Theodore from Alvin & The Chipmunks

Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street

Auntie Nelda from The Ernest Movies

The Silly Nate Film Club - The Great Muppet Caper

     It's been a little while since I've posted anything, and it's been an even less little while since I've done an installment of the Silly Nate Film Club. Since all I really do with this thing is gush on and on about random movies I like, I was thinking about putting the kibosh on it altogether, but then I got to thinking about how much negative content there is out there in relation to movies and pop culture in general. Whether it's "10 Reasons This Movie Sucks" or "5 Things to Hate About The Movie You Previously Loved," all the nerds seem to have a serious beef with something and are taking it out on our nostalgia! So I figured, a little gushing from time to time certainly couldn't hurt. 

     The film I'll be gushing over today is one that's always been towards the top of my personal "Movies That Make Ya Feel Good" list. From 1981, it's The Great Muppet Caper!

"Nice title!"

     This is the second film in what I consider to be the Muppet Trilogy (The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan) and definitely my favorite. For the first installment, The Muppet Movie, Jim Henson handed the directing responsibilities over to James Frawley, but for The Great Muppet Caper, he took the helm making this his directorial debut! This may be the reason why I love it as much as I do. His love of musical numbers, comedic takes, special effects, and just movies in general seem to shine through from beginning to end.

As well as his love of dining on the... tops of... pineapples? What's that all about?!

     In a time of cinematic universes, and never ending debates over what is and isn't canon, it's refreshing to look back at a movie that basically just says, "Screw it. Let's be nutty." They're the same Muppets we love, but with a premise different than the usual "We gotta make it into show business!" storyline. They've already made it... and this is the madcap nonsense that they've produced as a result. Kermit and Fozzie are identical twins, Charles Grodin plays the American brother to Diana Rigg's British Lady Holiday, and the entire supporting ensemble of Muppets live in a dilapidated London hotel without any explanation! It’s glorious insanity as only the Muppets can deliver!

With plenty of paper towels!

     What The Great Muppet Caper proves is that the Muppet characters aren't nailed down to a specific premise. Their stories don't define them. They're characters that are so well developed, they can be in a wide variety of different situations and still feel familiar. Fozzie Bear is Fozzie Bear, whether he's a struggling comedian or a wannabe newspaper reporter, he’s the same lovable bear regardless of what duties the script assigns him. This, to me, helps the brilliant illusion that the Muppets are actually real people. This, like the big opening musical number states, is a movie within a movie… and the Muppets are just the film’s players doing a comically horrible job staying in character.

"I don't need this lousy Duck Pond!"

     This type of thing was done again in films like A Muppet Christmas Carol or Muppet Treasure Island, but The Great Muppet Caper did it first, and in my opinion, best!

     And now’s the part of the show where I gush about specific moments in the movie that I love so much.

...I need to come up with another word to use besides ‘gush’. I’m starting to feel gross.

HiiiiiiiiiiYaa-ing the Fourth Wall - While I’m not entirely a fan of the term “Breaking the Fourth Wall,” I usually love whenever it happens. The same goes for a good running gag. The Great Muppet Caper is, by no means, exclusive when it comes to the Muppets and these techniques. They’re practically Muppet staples! But there’s just something about the times they’re used in this movie that I like a little more. No reason why. Charles Grodin’s character being called out by Miss Piggy on his dubbed singing voice, or Miss Piggy climbing the side of a building while demanding a stunt double are some great fourth wall-breaking moments that add to the whole movie within a movie aspect. (There’s probably a joke in there somewhere about Miss Piggy being good at wall-breaking, but I’ll refrain from making it.)

     And as far as running gags go, the whole Caught Red-Handed/What Color Are Their Hands Now routine is nothing short of cinematic poetry!

Muppets on Bicycles - Speaking of cinematic… good… stuff, the scene in The Great Muppet Caper where the Muppets all ride through the park on bicycles is one of the greatest special effects in the entirety of film history! I went to film school, worked in the field of video production for almost two decades, and watched James Cameron’s Avatar more times than any functional human being ever really should, and NOTHING get’s a bigger “How’d they do that?” from me than when Kermit and Company go peddling down that sidewalk. And while I may just be bragging about my own incompetence there, you still have to admit that Jim Henson and his team worked some pretty amazing pre-CGI movie magic with all of this!

The Pets Are Dead - The Great Muppet Caper was written by Tom Patchett, Jay Tarses, Jerry Juhl, and Jack Rose who are a bunch of dudes whom I think (SURPRISE!) did a fabulous job! One scene that stands out to me as being beautifully written is the humorously dull conversation between the older British couple played by John Cleese and Joan Sanderson. The subject of the conversation is basically NOTHING, yet the subtlety of the gags mixed with the timing of the actors manages to crack me up to this day!

The Pig Walks at Night - I don't know if he’s made it this far into this post, but in case he has, this last bit is for a friend of mine. There’s a quick shot in the film of a sad Miss Piggy walking down an empty street at night. It’s filmed from a high angle looking down and is basically just a far off shot of a person wearing a Miss Piggy mask. As brief as it is, it really creeps out a friend of mine… so… yeah. Look upon her, Jim. Look upon her and dream!

Also… Drew Struzan Poster! GUSH!!!!!!!!!!

RANDOMZ!

     Sometimes, without any rhyme or reason, I just feel like doing fan art of different characters, like the title says,... at RANDOM.

That's what I did here, except I added a 'z' at the end. It's more baller that way.

Bartman from The Simpsons 

Shirley McLoon from Tiny Toon Adventures

Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist

Orko from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Sam-I-Am from Green Eggs and Ham

Scooter from The Muppet Show

Cheetara from Thundercats

Bloo from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends

Sir Hiss from Disney’s Robin Hood

Dino from The Flintstones